A restaurant in San Francisco that has a no tip-policy and instead shares profits with its staff says it wasn't hit by the labor shortage

Many independent restaurants across the US say they have been devastated by the labor shortage, with some shutting their dining rooms, cutting their opening hours, or even closing for good.

The co-owner of Zazie, a French restaurant in San Francisco, says that it has been able to avoid the labor shortage thanks to the benefits it offers staff.

There are paid family leave, health and dental insurance, and a 401(k) with an employer match.

Megan Cornelius, co-owner of the restaurant, told Insider that everyone returned after they reopened. She said that Zazie had a low turnover because it offered benefits that other restaurants didn't, and that only one server left during the Pandemic because they changed careers.

Over the past five years, only a few of the restaurant's staff have left to change careers. She said no one quit to work at another restaurant.

Half of the 40 employees at the restaurant have been at Zazie for at least 10 years. After nine years as a server at Zazie, she bought the restaurant along with its executive chef and general manager in January 2020.

The restaurant paid staff for the first month, then kept their health and dental insurance, even though they were out of work.

She said that it paid staff when it was closed for repairs.

The previous owner put a no-tip policy in place.

Staff get extra money through profit sharing. 12% of the restaurant's total sales are shared between back-of-house staff, which created less of a division between front- and back-of-house staff, and removed the bias associated with tipping.

The staff and the restaurant make money if we are busy, so profit sharing made sense to us. Raising wages can get expensive. It's an incentive to work hard and keep your tables clean.

Zazie is proud to be tip-free and is a core part of its philosophy.

We get a lot of praise for it from our guests, and she thought that the no-tip policies were growing in popularity among diners.

She said that tipping is an archaic way of making money.

Some diners leave tips, which the server can take for themselves, though many choose to share them with other staff.

She said the previous owner financed the benefits it offers staff by hiking up its menu prices. The restaurant charges around $20 for sandwiches at lunch and $35 for dinner.

The minimum wage in the city is $16.32 per hour. Depending on how busy the restaurant is, server, kitchen staff, and dishwasher can make $1,000 or more a week from wages and profit shares.

She hoped that more people would respect restaurant staff.

I hope that people take a second look at their server, busboy or dishwasher when they go into the restaurant to see how hard they work.